Tick: A To-Do App That Trades Tedium for Pizzazz

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Tick: A To-Do App That Trades Tedium for Pizzazz

Tick is a customizable, icon-based to-do list app filled with animations that appeals equally to logic and emotion. Photo: Taphive

Instead of representing each project with an antiseptic line of text, the app showcases them as bold blocks of color personalized with a cute, interactive icon. Users can color code each list, pick one of 64 icons to illustrate it, and when tasks are added or completed the images spring to life—a credit card swipes itself on the edge of its box and snow falls softly on a mountain range. Photo: Taphive

For all the innovation in task management, most apps still treat users like soulless robots whose lives are centered around creating lists and checking boxes. Tick is trying to change that with a visually rich app that provides virtual pats on the back. Photo: Taphive

Underneath the custom organizational structure, Tick's to-do lists will be familiar to any Type A app tester. Tick hopes to include a bevy of fonts alongside performance upgrades in the next release. In this new flat world, without the crutch of skeuomorphism, Hassan believes designers are going to have to learn to balance fun and functionality: "Otherwise, you have a soulless bitmap under the glass." Photo: Taphive

Tick's designer, Asem Hassan, believes these design choices are what separate his app from other task trackers. "Where they provide a text to represent a list, we provide an icon. For every dull gray color they have, we have a bright color. For every gesture other apps have, we have a big shiny button." Photo: Taphive

Tick takes the position that task lists aren't that hard technically and the real challenge is changing behavior—a task best handled by appealing to emotion through animated icons and simplifying the process of sharing information using AirPlay. Photo: Taphive

>Tick takes the position that the real challenge is changing behavior.

Have you given any thought to your New Year's resolution for 2014? If so, do you have a system in place to ensure it doesn't end up a failed mission like the epic weight loss campaign of 2011 or "Project: Learn to Knit" from 2007? There's no shortage of organizational tools to help in these quests. Omnifocus offers an OCD level of control, Clear's minimal, gesture-based UI tries to turn you into a productivity ninja, and Apple's Reminders app leverages geofencing to help you conquer goals. But for all the innovation in task management, these apps still treat users like soulless robots whose lives are centered around creating lists and checking boxes. Tick is trying to change that with a visually rich app that provides virtual pats on the back.

With Tick you still create lists, populate them with tasks, and rearrange activities based on importance, but instead of representing each project with an antiseptic line of text, the app showcases them as bold blocks of color personalized with a cute, interactive icon. Users can color code each list, pick one of 64 icons to illustrate it, and when tasks are added or completed the images spring to life—a credit card swipes itself on the edge of its box and snow falls softly on a mountain range. The animations are subtle, but you will want to create a project plan for laundry day just to see what the washing machine icon does.

Tick's designer, Asem Hassan believes these design choices are what separate his app from other task trackers. "Where they provide a text to represent a list, we provide an icon. For every dull grey color they have, we have a bright color. For every gesture other apps have, we have a big shinny button."

Bright colors and a flat UI make Tick feel native to iOS 7, but the app minimizes swipes and other advanced UI conventions in favor of easy to understand buttons. "We wanted to build an app that doesn’t need a tutorial telling you how to do X or Y," says Hassan. Competitive apps promise to make task management easier by training users to rely on a complex collection of gestures, but Hassan disagrees with the premise. "They heavily tax the user experience in favor of being futuristic." Tick supports swipe and pinch gestures for power users, but as shortcuts, not core mechanics.

Ultimately, Tick takes the position that task lists aren't that hard technically and the real challenge is changing behavior—a task best handled by appealing to emotion through animated icons instead of teaching users to learn a sad form of sign language or arcane method of organization.

Despite the differentiated approach, Tick's creators have a long list of "to-dos" they'll need to address to remain competitive. The app currently has no reminders or syncing capabilities—things that even the most relaxed task tracker care about. Still, the Tick team isn't letting up on customization and hopes to include a bevy of fonts alongside performance upgrades in the next release. In this new flat world, without the crutch of skeuomorphism, Hassan believes designers are going to have to learn to balance fun and functionality: "Otherwise, you have a soulless bitmap under the glass."